IPF 2015 Finalists - First Impressions

June 25, 2015

The Independent Production Fund is the Holy Grail of web series funding in Canada. The IPF first announced the finalists on June 18, 2015, with 9 English and 5 French. This year the IPF received 195 applicants, up from 188 in the 2014 application year, and shortlisted 27 projects. The fund requires a concept trailer. The most the IPF has given out in funding is approximately $100,000, and with the condition the IPF won’t be the project’s only source of funding. For 2015 the IPF has approved funding for 14 web series. As this year’s selection does not include any renewable seasons of previous IPF recipients, these web series are all new original projects.

The Shoe-ins/ Popular Kids Demon X Demon X is Frostbite Pictures’ project. If you don’t know Frostbite Pictures from the web series world, you probably will. They produce high quality ‘online content’ with notable shows like Last Fall of Ashes, Fools For Hire, Polaris, and Haphead among others. Often Frostbite Pictures joins a project after production to help with distribution and financing. With other projects, like Demon X, Frostbite comes on board right from the beginning. From a business perspective Frostbite Pictures looks good to the IPF. On the creative perspective there are several aspects of this concept that would also appeal to the decision-makers at the IPF. Now aside from the fact the trailer features a female lead, thank you for that, she also happens to look like a cross between DC’s Harley Quinn and the cult favourite Xena Warrior Princess. This is bonus points for those looking to appeal to an avid female demographic. But I find it curious on how the character appears to dress with a straight, white male audience in mind. In all honesty the trailer did not make it clear what the web series is about until the last minute. Now the idea of employing the Christian myth of Lucifer into a web series appeals to the fans of the hugely successful CW show Supernatural. The stories around angels, god, heaven, hell and the devil have actually proven incredibly popular to a modern audience. So this concept does work, and the audience hungry for more content is out there. Consequently, another web series that was greenlit for funding in the 2014 IPF session was Riftworld Chronicles originally titled The Portal. The project had a huge social media push from Tahmoh Penikett’s Supernatural fans, and that also helped get Riftworld Chronicles funding.Dhaliwal ’15 The star of this concept trailer is a GTA familiar face. Jasmeet Singh aka Jus Reign is a beloved Sikh YouTube star, and when I say beloved I mean the guy has over 500,000 YouTube subscribers. Now here’s the thing about YouTube celebrities working the web series game, in a way it’s uncharted territory. YouTubers don’t specialize in the same form of storytelling that’s familiar to web series creators. Often YouTubers upload one-off comedy skits, jump cut ridden vlogs, and their own version of recent viral videos. But YouTubers do need the basic set of production and post-production skills to make quality videos to please their audience.The IPF looks at Jus Reign, his ability to feed the YouTube algorithm, and his subscriber count as a ‘guaranteed rate of return.’ With all the tremendous support the IPF has given web series, they do expect to get some of their money back. Fun Fact: The IPF provides ‘equity investments,’ meaning they take a percentage of the project’s revenues. Let’s be honest here, YouTube celebrities are the new star system. The trailer itself is mostly clips of Singh’s more popular YouTube videos. It’s snippets of the YouTuber’s comedic talents, but it’s hard to tell whether Singh is making fun of himself or pushing his social media numbers. In a way, the first half of the video feels like an audition tape. The obvious green screen quality adds to this feeling. The concept itself is very niche, which is exclusive to the web series medium, a Sikh kid from Toronto running for Prime Minister of Canada. The idea is a little controversial, in a positive way, as this country has only had old white Angelo Saxon men as Prime Minister. Another limit to the trailer is the cast, as the video only features Singh and there’s no detail on plot or additional characters. Hopefully the web series will continue with the potential diversity of the cast. My 90 Year Old RoommateThis concept originated with Explaining Things to my Grandfather a YouTube series about Ethan Cole and his amazingly charming grandfather Joe. The running joke with these videos is that Joe often upstages Ethan, as his grandson often tries and fails to pick up women. According to Slow Clap’s website the web series was made to entice comedy web portal Funny Or Die. Now My 90 Year OldRoommate looks good for the IPF for various reasons. The first being Slow Clap already has an established audience for this concept. This is similar to what the creators of Versus Valerie did when they made Sexy Nerd Girl. In a way the IPF knows the concept is tried and it works, and in a way it’s less of a gamble. These guys know how to make a web series, and how to do it well. The YouTube channel of Slow Clap may not have as big of numbers as Jus Reign, but they’re still substantial. Currently, the Slow Clap YouTube channel has 25, 000 subscribers with over 2 million in total views. The concept trailer itself does a good job at showcasing Slow Clap’s production value. It’s well edited and boasts quality footage. The description on YouTube specifies the series will be entirely scripted; an important distinction to make as the IPF only funds fictional content. The acting abilities here might be the only hitch, as both Joe and Ethan are used to having jump cut conversations. My 90 Year Old Roommate also seems to play on Ethan’s supposedly poor pick up skills, and hopefully this will lead to an array of female cast members. Another buddy comedy on how a poor privileged white dude can’t get a girlfriend seems a little cliché, and the potential for well-developed female cast will change that. HauntersHaunters is a comedy musical about ghosts narrating their hauntings. The current concept trailer uses live vocals, and showcases the beautiful voices of the actors. They’re actually talented, something you wouldn’t expect from web series. Film adaptations of musicals are hard to pull off, and also something you don’t see too often. According to their website the IPF has only approved funding for one other musical web series: Prison Dancer. This project first caught my eye for having Davin Lengyel listed as a producer. Now Lengyel has a number of notable web series credits including Versus Valerie, Space Janitors, and Pure Pwnage. Another notable name, aside from the actor J. Adam Brown, is Blain Watters. Watters is a graduate of the Bell Media Prime Time TV Program from the Canadian Film Centre. According to the CFC website Watters worked on Lost Girl, co-written three episodes of the Netflix Original Series Between, and wrote Between the Lines (which is transmedia to Netflix’s Between). Also according to the CFC profile on Watters, Haunters has picked up distribution through Smokebomb Entertainment. Smokebomb has a long history of developing and distributing web series in Canada, including Inhuman Condition, which was approved for IPF funding last year.This series has a lot of potential to get really fun, especially since it’s modern musical approach versus a Sound of Music or Les Miserables type of show. Squadron 86Squadron 86 is the second science fiction project out of the 14 green lit shows. This is also the second project with Davin Lengyel credited as producer. Lengyel is featured in the concept trailer for Squadron 86, and tells the decision makers at the IPF the web series’ focus on space combat. This trailer functions more like a pitch than a demonstration of a concept, because it features no cast and mostly Lengyel talking to the camera. But it does show some of the production value with quality footage and visual effects. The star of this concept trailer is a concept model of the scout ship DCA Sebastian. This one of Lengyel’s strengths in VFX. Lengyel actually demonstrated how to build a model ship in a workshop at this year’s T.O. WebFest. Lengyel does sate in the trailer that he prefers to, ‘show instead of tell.’ The visual demonstration in the concept trailer is reminiscent of several science fiction classics. The trailer cites examples from space combats in BattlestarGalactica, but this concept also appeals to Star Wars fans. This times especially well with hungry fans gearing up JJ Abrams’ revival of the franchise.